Toru Dutt
| birth_place = Kolkata, Bengal, British India | death_date = August | death_place = Kolkata, Bengal, British India | occupation = Poetess | nationality = Indian | ethnicity = Bengali | religion = Christian | parents = Govind Chunder Dutt }} Toru Dutt (Bengali: তরু দত্ত) (March 4, 1856 - August 30, 1877) was an Indian poet who wrote in English and French. Life Childhood Toru Dutt was a daughter of Govin Chunder Dutt, for many years a justice of the peace at Calcutta. She spent her childhood in Calcutta, her birth town, with her elder sister Aru and brother Abju. The family belonged to the high-caste cultivated Hindus, and Toru’s education was conducted on broad lines. Her work frequently discloses charming pictures of the home life that filled the old garden house at Calcutta. Here it is easy to see the studious child poring over French, German, and English lexicons, reading every book she could lay hold of, hearing from her mother’s lips those old legends of her race which had been woven into the poetry of native bards long before the civilization of modern Europe existed. Her siblings and she too were affected by a disease, supposedly tuberculosis. Thus she lost both of her siblings at a tender age and she too died young. In her 13th year Toru and her younger sister were sent to study for a few months in France, and thence to attend lectures at Cambridge and to travel in England. A memory of this visit appears in Toru’s little poem, "Near Hastings," which shows the impressionable nature of the Indian girl, so sensitive to the romance of an alien race, and so appreciative of her friendly welcome to English soil. After 4 years’ travel in Europe the Dutts returned to India to resume their student life, and Toru began to learn Sanskrit. She showed great aptitude for the French language and a strong liking for the French character, and she made a special study of French romantic poetry. In 1874 there appeared in the Bengal Magazine an essay upon Leconte de Lisle, which showed not only an unusual knowledge of French literature, but also decided literary qualities. Her essays on de Lisle and Joséphin Soulary, and a series of English translations of poetry, were the fruit of her labor. The translations, including specimens from Béranger, Théophile Gautier, François Coppée, Sully-Prud’homme, and other popular writers, were collected in 1876 under the title A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields. A few copies found their way into Europe, and both French and English reviewers recognized the value of the harvest of this clear-sighted gleaner. One critic called these poems, in which Toru so faithfully reproduced the spirit of one alien tongue in the forms of another, transmutations rather than translations. In 1878, the year after the poet’s death, appeared a second edition of A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields containing 43 additional poems, with a brief biographical sketch written by her father. Writing Poetry The many translators of the Sakoontala and of other Indian dramas show how difficult it is for the Western mind to express the indefinable spirituality of temper that fills ancient Hindu poetry. This remarkable quality Toru wove unconsciously into her English verse, making it seem not exotic but complementary, an echo of that far-off age when the genius of the two races was one."Toru Dutt (1856–1877): Critical and Biographical Introduction," Library of the World’s Best Literature. New York: Warner Library, 1917. Bartleby.com, Web, Feb. 7, 2017. Toru’s English renditions of the native Indian legends, called Ancient Ballads of Hindustan, give a sense of great original power. Selected from much completed work left unpublished at her too early death, these poems are revelations of the Eastern religious thought, which loves to clothe itself in such forms of mystical beauty as haunt the memory and charm the fancy. But in these translations it is touched by the spirit of the new faith which Toru had adopted. The poems remain, however, essentially Indian. The glimpses of lovely landscape, the shining temples, the greening gloom of the jungle, the pink flush of the dreamy atmosphere, are all of the East, as is the philosophic calm that breathes through the verses. The most beautiful of the ballads is perhaps that of "Savitri," the king’s daughter who by love wins back her husband after he has passed the gates of death. Another, "Sindher," re-tells the old story of that king whose great power is unavailing to avert the penalty which follows the breaking of the Vedic law, even though it was broken in ignorance. Still another, "Prehlad," reveals that insight into things spiritual which characterizes the true seer or “called of God.” Two charming legends, "Jogadhya Uma," and "Buttoo," full of the pastoral simplicity of the early Aryan life, and a few miscellaneous poems, complete this volume upon which Toru’s fame will rest. Novel A posthumous novel written in French makes up the sum of her contribution to letters. Le Journal de Mlle. D’Arvers was found completed among her posthumous papers. It is a romance of modern French life, whose motive is the love of two brothers for the same girl. The tragic element dominates the story, and the author has managed the details with extraordinary ease without sacrificing either dignity or dramatic effect. The story was edited by Mademoiselle Bader, a correspondent of Toru, and her sole acquaintance among European authors. Publications Poetry * Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan (with preface by Edmund Gosse). London: Kegan Paul Trench, 1882. Novels *''Toru Dutt's Bianca; or, The young Spanish maiden: The first novel by an Indian woman'' (edited by Subhendu Mund). New Dehi: Prachi Prakashan, 2001. *''The Diary of Mademoiselle D'Arvers''. London & New York: Penguin, 2005. Translated *''A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields'' (with prefatory memoir by Govin Chunder Dutt). Bhowanipore, India: B.M. Bose, at Saptahik Sambad Press, 1878; London: C. Kegan Paul, 1880. Edited *''Hindu Literature''. London & New York: Colonial Press, 1900. Collected editions * Collected Prose and Poetry (edited by Chandani Lokugé). New Delhi, Oxford, & New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Letters *Harihara Dāsa, Life and Letters of Toru Dutt (with preface by H.A.L. Fisher). London & New York: Humphrey Milford / Oxford University Press, 1921. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Toru Dutt, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Feb. 7, 2017. See also * List of Indian poets writing in English References *''Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan'' (Biographical dictionary) in Bengali edited by Subodh Chandra Sengupta and Anjali Bose. *Edmund Gosse, Introductory Memoir, Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan. London: Kegan Paul, 1882. Notes External links ;Poems *"Our Casuarina Tree" in A Victorian Anthology * Selected poetry of Toru Dutt (1856-1877) at Representative Poetry Online. * Indian English poetry ;Books * [http://foss.elsweb.org/toru_dutt/index.php?title=Toru_Dutt Annotated Ancient Ballads with Critical Introduction] * ;Audio / video *Toru Dutt at YouTube ;About * Toru Dutt: The first Indian poetess in English, Press Information Bureau, Government of India *Critical introduction by Chris Foss Category:Bengali people Category:Indian poets Category:English-language poets from India Category:Indian writers Category:Indian Christians Category:Indian women writers Category:1856 births Category:1877 deaths Category:19th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:French-language poets Category:Poets Category:Women poets Category:Poets who died before 30